Prophets Series at St Bride's Pt 1
The Prophetic Imagination of Micah by Guy Elsmore The Prophet Micah lived and worked in the 8th Century BC, during the reigns of Uzziah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam II, king of Israel, when a period of relative peace and prosperity began to come to an end. This was in part due to the rise of the nation of Assyria, which was becoming a potent political force in the Near East. With the rise of Assyria came a rise in military pressure upon the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.
At the same time that trade and commerce was flourishing, rich landowners were bribing Judges to look favourably upon illicit land acquisitions resulting in a rapid disappearance of small farmers. Those who were dispossessed drifted from the countryside to the cities, which led to overcrowding in the major population centres. Micah outspokenly refuted practices that infringed upon the rights of small farmers resulting in economic gains for rich landowners.
Micah 7:1-4 Woe is me! For I have become like one who, after the summer fruit has been gathered, after the vintage has been gleaned, finds no cluster to eat; there is no first-ripe fig for which I hunger. The faithful have disappeared from the land, and there is no one left who is upright; they all lie in wait for blood, and they hunt each other with nets. Their hands are skilled to do evil; the official and the judge ask for a bribe, and the powerful dictate what they desire; thus they pervert justice. The best of them is like a brier, the most upright of them a thorn hedge. The day of their sentinels, of their punishment, has come; now their confusion is at hand.
In his book The Prophetic Imagination, Walter Brueggemann argues that the work of the prophet is to critique the dominant culture/consciousness of society through rhetoric, irony, plain speaking and lament.
The above text shows us Micah in full flow railing against the injustices heaped upon the poor by the rich and powerful. Micah is also superbly adept in the use of biting satire. In a passage in chapter 1 where Micah warns of the coming Assyrian invasion, the town of Lachish (noted for its horses) is told to harness the horses to aid the town’s escape from the coming disaster but, Micah warns, they will not be able to escape because the town is itself harnessed to Jerusalem.
The residents of Zaanaan (the name means “come out”) are told that they will not be able to come out of their town to escape.
The rich cast lots to decide the boundaries of their corruptly obtained land in the assembly of the Lord. Micah warns that the same fate will befall the nations themselves as a result of Israel and Judah’s falling away from the standards of the Law.
Micah is an “outsider” a provincial prophet who visits Jerusalem and sees the official prophets with their carefully crafted liturgies and their words of support for a corrupt elite. He is scathing in his criticism:
Micah 2:7-11 Should this be said, O house of Jacob? Is the Lord’s patience exhausted? Are these his doings? Do not my words do good to one who walks uprightly? But you rise up against my people as an enemy; you strip the robe from the peaceful, from those who pass by trustingly with no thought of war. The women of my people you drive out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my glory for ever. Arise and go; for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction. If someone were to go about uttering empty falsehoods, saying, ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink’, such a one would be the preacher for this people!
Brueggemann’s job description for a prophet has a second part: He argues that the other role of the prophet is to create a space in which an alternative vision of reality can be nurtured through poetry, imagination and symbolic action.
Here, Micah’s hopeful imagination yields some of scriptures most well known passages:
Micah 4:1-5 In days to come the mountain of the Lord’s house shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be raised up above the hills. Peoples shall stream to it, and many nations shall come and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.’ For out of Zion shall go forth instruction, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge between many peoples, and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away; they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more; but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid; for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.
Micah 5:1-4 But you, O Bethlehem of Ephrathah, who are one of the little clans of Judah, from you shall come forth for me one who is to rule in Israel, whose origin is from of old, from ancient days. Therefore he shall give them up until the time when she who is in labour has brought forth; then the rest of his kindred shall return to the people of Israel. And he shall stand and feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God. And they shall live secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth;
The work of the prophet is one of “hopeful imagination” – using vivid and hopeful imagery around which a new reality can form and an alternative community, nurtured by the alternative vision of reality, is called together and nourished by the prophet’s hopeful imagination. Just as Moses created a new dynamic reality of liberation which contrasted with the dominant story of oppression and slavery so Jesus created the reality of the Kingdom of God through parables, miracles and meals – a total contrast to the dominant realities of the temple system and the oppression of Roman rule.
Questions:
Do any of the words from Micah strike you as relevant to our world today?
What is the “dominant story” of our society? 3/ Who is telling an “alternative” story?